does it really damage amps mounting them to boxes

[Big Red 10+ year member]

lol my box is built with 8 sheets of 3/4 and my amps are mouted right to it! one each side and 3 on top behind the sound bar! they vibrate yes but less then any other place in my truck

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

A ECU is made to take the elements of the outdoors and the vibration of the engine and the road, that would be stupid of a car company to make a ECU that would fall off driving down the road. A amplifer is way diffrent that a ECU for a car.

ECUs also don't have HEAVY parts in them.

Amps with heavier parts are more prone to damage from vibration as well. We added more screws to our 1500s and 3000s around the heavy parts to help prevent damage. It has worked pretty well in reducing the # of vibration related failures.

Generally in an amp vibration breaks off the legs of the transistors or rectifiers - parts that are mounted to the board but also attached to the casing separately. If the board vibrates too much or warps too much from heat it will eventually snap off the legs of those parts. Much less common it is possible to rattle off a component from the main PCB board or break a solder joint... but those are much less common than breaking off FETs and rectifiers.

In any event... a thick, nicely braced box with rubber stand-offs will *generally* not damage an amp. Although, in my experience almost any amp that has suffered vibration damage has been mounted to an enclosure.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

****, I didn't have time to come to this forum during the christmas holiday and because I was working on important projects here at dB-r.... I will answer these questions now:

Does vibration hurt amps: YES

Prove it: I have lots of pics, but some of the manufacturers might get pissed off if I started posting pics of their broken amps from vibration, but if enough people here must see proof and just don't believe me I will post some pics, I have a good lawyer....

Problem with this thread is everyone has had different experiences. But being a repair shop, I can tell you for 100% sure, YES vibration over time, will damage your amp... I have seen 1000's of mosfets, rectifiers, and capacitors (large ones) broken from the board just floating around in the amp.... now for the more technical people here who "just don't understand", no the solder isn't breaking, properly heated solder joints do not break very easy, even at 160 db+. The steel/copper/whatever they used legs of the parts themselves are breaking. Sometimes right at the board, sometimes right at the base of the part housing. Why does this happen? What can be done about it? How the **** can this be if the manufacturers KNOW the amps are going to be subjected to vibration would they not build in some sort of way to protect the part from being damaged due to vibration? This is why:

The parts used in ALL car stereo amps are NOT designed specifically for car stereo applications. They are the same parts that you will find in everything electronic. No company out there that I am aware of makes transistors solely for car stereo amps. It's just not going to happen either, think of the "scope" of car audio.... small tiny group of sales, not worth the R&D to make parts just for their specific application. The only things you may find in a car stereo amplifier that was "made specifically for car stereo amplifiers" is the power supply transformers and output/filtering inductors as those things likely aren't used in much else, at least not in the exact shape/size required to fit in a car stereo amp, so alot of those are made at the factory by the manufacturer of the amplifier or made by a seperate company who all they do is sell those things to customers who manufacture car stereo amplifiers.

 

[MemphisCherokee 10+ year member]

i agree. i routinely play cd's in my amplifier.

i ****ing rofl'd to that one

sigged

 

[Grinder1989 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for explaining Chris. I couldn't do it better.

 

[muskyhunter567 10+ year member]

i never mount amps on boxes, and i can tell the box shakes more because i can crank my tunes, put my hand on the side of the box, and then the inner tire well of the car, and the box shakes more, but thats just me,